The morning Manna will be provided at 6am. Thanks.

Studying Ephesians in the SSnet.org series Lesson 12, may the Holy Spirit be the speaker to your heart.

The Topic today is: Ephesians 6 and the paranoia of Nero against Christian “terrorists” for Morning Manna of the Sabbath School Lesson Ephesians.

The Opening Hymn will be 229 "Spirit of the Living God".

The Sabbath School Quarterly, downloadable from SSnet.org in the Teacher's Edition is on page 152ff.

The SSnet.org allows anyone, anywhere to read the lesson in their own language. Choose your own language to see God speaking also to your heart.

Why don’t you click on this link right now:

https://www.adultbiblestudyguide.org/pdf.php?file=2023:3Q:SE:PDFs:EAQ323_012.pdf

---Paul is in jail when Ephesians was written. It is nearly 64 AD.

---Nero is the emperor.

---Nero called himself divine.

---In temples and the Parthenon in Athens were inscriptions telling how wonderful a victor Nero is in his campaigns.

---He “wonderfully” killed his stephbrother (see S. Malik 2020 cited).

Source: Shushma Malik is Lecturer in Classics at the University of Roehampton and author of The Nero-Antichrist: Founding and Fashioning a Paradigm (Cambridge, 2020).

https://www.historytoday.com/archive/feature/nero-versus-christians

---Yes, Nero is not the Antichrist of 2 Thessalonians 2 nor Revelation 13 by John.

---Nowhere in the Bible is Nero called the Antichrist. It is a myth of later Christianity.

---Of course Paul and Peter died under him. But that does not make him the prophetic expected future Antichrist to come.

---Because “future” was the key in the Bible predictions some Christians then developed the doctrine that sometime in future Nero will be resurrected as an Antichrist. Reincarnation Antichrist!

---Adventists do not believe this at all. 600+60+6 is vicarius filii dei discovered by Andreas Helwig in 1612, 1618 and 1630 in three editions of his work. It is the favorite title of the Eucharist holders of the real body of Christ in their view which only they can give to people for salvation on earth as representatives of the Son of God. No kissing my hand. No salvation. No taking the bread. No salvation. That is the Antichrist which reigned for a specific period between 538-1798 and was wounded and revived in modern times as we could see with Pope Paul John and his funeral where five American presidents attended! Hello.

---So Ephesians was written by a slave or worker of Paul.

---A learned man that used specialized Greek.

---Nero was a complicated man and Tacitus said that he persecuted the Christians in a gruesome way.

---Paul and Peter knew that their days were counted. He knew that with this mad emperor there was not much hope of getting out alive.

---The lifestyle of Nero is also noteworthy. If you look at a coin of his from 64 AD, you will notice his neck is very thick. Overeating.

---The typical Roman snacks through the day some have three and others four meals, says Jerome Carcopino 1938 page 264.

---At cena which was the eighth hour in Winter or ninth hour in Summer, 5 and 6 o clock, they came back from baths and ate dinner called cena.

---The cena of Nero lasted from the 5^th or 6^th hour until Midnight (Carcopino 1938: 265).

---Ellen White says in Counsels on Diets and Foods that eating styles can benumb the brain and mental judgment. Correct? Welcome to Nero and welcome to the death of Paul and Peter.

---Nero made his imperial claim as a result of the dynasty’s divinity (Carcopino page 55). Paul needed to redefine divinity in Ephesians. Correct?

---There is the first consecration of a beard by Nero (Carcopino page 160).

---There were silk caravans in his time (Carcopino page 169).

---His Christian relationship is explained by Carcopino on pages 136-137.

---Did Paul have reason to be concerned about this power in control on earth?

---So our fight as Christians is not with flesh and blood although Nero did not believe his or their witness that it is not about him Nero that they are against.

---He used the rare power word of the world “world power” κοσμοκράτωρ.

---He is here in the arena of Nero himself. But Christ is the top power. Heaven is stronger than the earth.

---He discussed the power of soldiers in Christianity.

---Nero would have been nervous about this.

---He was suspicious but Paul is speaking of spiritual military clothes.

---Paul does not avoid the reality of Nero’s fears of Christianity as “underground terrorists who sets fire at his buildings”. (see Malik 2020 supra).

---Is Paul not brave? He speaks straight truth though the heavens fall. Though he may be thrown to the lions in Nero’s arena. Correct?

---How about you? Are you looking for the right Church or one that is still calling Nero an Antichrist? Move. When. Immediately.